They say it takes a village to raise a child, in the case of The Owens newest exhibit, it takes a town to make some art. At least that’s the case for artists and collaborators, Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky.
Weppler, based in New York, and Mahovsky, who works out of Toronto, spent weeks in Sackville in October of 2023, meeting with grade school students, university students and anyone else who was interested from the wider community. They held workshops at Marshview Middle School, asking classes to make sculptures for their exhibit.
Grade five student Callum Tunnacliffe was in one of those classes and was at the art opening on Saturday, January 13. Thinking back to his time with the artists at school, Tunnacliffe said, “Everybody had a lot of fun.”
His mother Lucy MacDonald is the curator of Education and Community Outreach at the gallery. She was an integral part of bring the art duo to Sackville.
“It took a lot of coordination,” said MacDonald. She reached out to Marshview Middle School principle, Heather Dixon, who was immediately on board. The pandemic slowed things down considerably, but the artists eventually made it to Sackville to run the workshops. When they returned for the opening, the work was finished. It’s called Solaris.
More than 130 people participated in the collaborative work which involves a video that was made by filming melting ice sculptures. The soundtrack for the video was recorded during the workshops.
Weppler and Mahovsky are no strangers to Sackville. Approximately 20 years ago, just after she finished her graduate degree, Weppler had her first solo show at Struts Gallery. “Which meant a huge deal to me because when you’re first out of school like that it’s so hard to get any kind of opportunity,” said Weppler.
That show got her noticed by The Owens former director, Gemey Kelly, who invited her to show at the gallery. Weppler accepted, but soon after started feeling behind on her plans for the show. She turned to her former classmate, Mahovsky, to talk about the exhibit she was planning. The two were working together at a factory and would discuss their ideas while working. This lead to their collaborating, something they’ve done together ever since.
The two set up a separate project at the gallery that also has to do with collaboration called Pom-Pom Jam Mobile Hub. Basketball sized pom-poms contain kits for gallery goers to make more pom-poms.
Mahovsky said the wool available to make these pom-poms is sourced from the internet, “it’s other people’s resold yarn… So you might get an array of colours from Betty in Columbus Ohio,” he said.
Mahovsky said working with the previous owner’s abandoned craft project is a form of collaboration. “It’s her colour pallet, you’re reusing her yarn… and bringing her project forward in another way,” he said.
They aren’t sure how many pom-poms have been made between here and Calgary, the project’s earlier home, but they estimate their number to be in the hundreds.
Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky’s Solaris and Pom-Pom Jam Mobile Hub is up at the Owens Art Gallery until May 5.
